


Voice of the family

by Steangine



Series: Voice of us [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 02:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14150418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: Meeting the family, when your boyfriend is an arrancar.[Follows "Voice of the father"]





	Voice of the family

**Author's Note:**

> This one shot is related to this one (https://archiveofourown.org/works/7988740). If you don't want to read it, here's a brief summary. Grimmjow goes to the human World because he wants to fetch a present for Ichigo and there he meets Isshin; while talking, Grimmjow explains his lover his the substitute shinigami of Karakura, revealing Ichigo actually has a lover (even if it's not a cute human girl).

Wooden walls and green roof. Not a nice pair for the eyes, but the whole house matched perfectly with the others on the street. If it wasn’t much bigger, it would have blended. Instead, the Kurosaki clinic it stood out, a lighthouse easy to find and reach.

Grimmjow stopped in front of the glass doors, but Ichigo walked past him.

“The door is this way, Grimmjow.”

Grimmjow had already met Ichigo’s father – under a series of seemingly unrelated circumstances. Up to that point, the only doctors Grimmjow had a clear memory of were Syazelaporro and a serious but competent someone he met when he was a human – ages before. So, he didn’t believe Ichigo when he told him his father, that idiot-looking man, was one. But here there was the proof in front of his eyes, under the form of a sign.

Ichigo was in front of the door, Grimmjow stopped behind him.

“Ring the bell.”

It seemed like Ichigo couldn’t just raise the damn hand and push the button. Grimmjow did it and the loud ring stiffened Ichigo’s posture, like a natural reaction.

“What’s wrong, Kurosaki?”

“Nothing… but–“

The door slammed. Both took a step behind, Grimmjow mostly because Ichigo stepped on him. Isshin appeared in all his glory, his face bursting of a sinister happiness that was making his eyes glimmer. He snorted from his nostrils.

“What are you waiting for?” Isshin had both hands on his hips, emulating the pose of a hero. “Come in!”

At least he didn’t show his jump of love, forcing Ichigo to avoid it. Ichigo knew that should have been a good sign, but the whole situation didn’t seem that good now that he was living it. Since the previous day, when all the “introduce your boyfriend” was just a plan, it actually looked like a good plan. Then, Ichigo’s mind tricked him that night, showing cracks in his idea that he had never noticed until it was too late to cancel everything. How they met, how they ended up stop trying to kill each other (Grimmjow stopped trying to kill him and Ichigo stopped defending himself from his attacks) and why the hell, with all the human girls in the world, he ended up choosing not only a male arrancar, but also the one who bore the greatest grudge against him – Ichigo didn’t know the answer himself. How could he answer to all those questions without sounding weird?

“I’m going back home.”

Ichigo tried to retreat, but Grimmjow grabbed his right elbow.

“This is your home. You dragged me here, so don’t you dare quit.”

Grimmjow’s voice was quiet, but his eyes were burning. Only Urahara knew how hard was stuffing him into a gigai and Ichigo had to bear all of his complaints about how human skin was sensitive and those clothes itched, and he had all those strange feelings into his stomach and so on. He spent the whole path from the shop to the house scratching himself like a mangy cat. Grimmjow had all the rights to stop his attempt of flying away, but Ichigo was too stubborn to bend at him.

However, by the time he found the right words to reply, Isshin was already behind them and clamped both arms around their necks. They were trapped and brought inside the house without room to rebel. Isshin slammed the door behind them and, with a huge smile, opened both arms, pointing at the whole entrance.

“Welcome to our house!”

“Old man, you should do this when we reach the living room… ah, Grimmjow.” Ichigo stopped him, who was already leaving the entrance. “Take off your shoes.”

“…what?”

“Take them off.”

“I didn’t take them off at Urahara’s.”

“Because that’s a shop.”

“You walk around with bare feet?”

“You keep the socks.”

“This makes no sense…”

Grimmjow grumbled, but he took off his shoes.

“Weird…”

“Las Noces was in western style, wasn’t it?” Ichigo commented.

“From what I recall, there is nothing similar to Las Noces here. And _you_ are the human here.”

“What I meant was– ah, forget it.”

Grimmjow frowned. “Forget what? You’re always like that!”

“Like that what?!”

Isshin didn’t feel like interrupting that exchange, even if it was getting harsher as both replied to each other without really replying to the questions. But he was lucky, because Yuzu walked out of the kitchen.

“Ichi-nii!”

She called her brother, ready to scold him because he was already arguing, but as she saw Grimmjow, she was mesmerized.

Ichigo had never described Grimmjow before. He would have waited a bit more to introduce him to his family, if it wasn’t for the strange circumstances that brought Isshin meeting him and Grimmjow revealing he was his son’s boyfriend. So, there was no apparent need for telling who Grimmjow was. A tall man with broad shoulders and the foreign appeal of a punk, that was all that Yuzu could see. She was mature enough to contain her reaction, but still a teenager who loved the trope of the bad-guy-crush. Grimmjow totally looked like one of the handsome bad guys she drooled over watching American dramas. His eyes were narrow, his expression annoyed, his slack posture magnificent. Yuzu flushed.

“H-hello… I’m Kurosaki Yuzu!” She made a deep bow. “Nice to meet you!”

Karin, who followed her, was impressed. Not in the way Yuzu was, but she was. She wasn’t really impressed when Ichigo, few days before, declared at dinner that he had a boyfriend – just a bit of surprise that she overcame quickly. But she was impressed by his boyfriend as a whole, because he looked like a rascal who caused anything but troubles. Karin had never thought about who his brother’s type could be, but surely that Grimmjow didn’t look like one. Was Ichigo putting a prank on their father because he had been blabbering too much about getting a girlfriend in the late weeks?

“I’m Karin… nice to meet you.”

Ichigo elbowed Grimmjow. Both Yuzu and Karin noticed.

“Nice to meet you. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques.”

“Lunch is almost ready. Ichi-nii, why don’t you show him the house?”

Karin, with a single sentence, managed to awaken Yuzu from her daze and prevent Isshin from saying something inappropriate.

“Of course.”

Grimmjow was scratching his left elbow and ignored Ichigo’s glare.

“Is it really difficult staying into that gigai?” Ichigo muttered.

“It’s not like I can get used to all these tingling sensations in no time. How do humans do without a hierro?”

“You were human once.”

“Who knows how many years have passed since I turned into a Hollow.”

“Fair enough…”

Isshin slammed his hand against a huge photograph that almost filled the entire wall. Both shut up and Ichigo prayed for a hole to open under his feet and swallow him.

“This is my beautiful wife! Mother!” He started talking to the picture. “Look, Ichigo grew up and brought his lover to our house. Aren’t you proud of him?!”

Grimmjow seemed interested in the picture of his mother smiling at the camera. Ichigo didn’t spot anything in his face that hinted a surprise or even disgust. The idea of Grimmjow ignoring his father was both a relief and a pain, because he didn’t know if Grimmjow just decided to treat his father like a part of the furniture or he was so used to unusual behaviors that Isshin was normal to him.

“…he always talks to that picture. Just ignore him.”

Grimmjow shrugged. “I lived with the Espada. Your father is fairly normal, compared to some of them. Compared to Aizen and Tousen too.”

The second one. Not at all a relief.

“…okay, this doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Your mother was truly beautiful…” Grimmjow turned towards Ichigo. “…I guess you took after your father’s side of the family.”

“Hey, what do you mean by that?”

Grimmjow and Ichigo were dangerously close, at the distance of a punch or a headbutt.

Isshin was as excited as he was at the first days of school of his children. Ichigo couldn’t understand his excitement and probably nor could Grimmjow, who still had his frown but somehow looked confused, as if he didn’t know how to behave in that situation. It was almost cute how his eyes glanced around looking for something familiar he could cling to; instead, he ended up in a strange environment, subjugated to a foreign body and without the basis for a normal human approach to other humans. He didn’t look unease outside, but Ichigo noticed Grimmjow was walking really really close to him, as if he was afraid he could leave him alone at any moment.

“Ichigo, show him your room.”

“Later.” Karin called them. “Lunch is ready, come.”

They sat down, Ichigo next to Grimmjow, who was facing Karin. None of them had time to put the food into their bowls that Yuzu blurted out a sudden question.

“Grimmjow-kun, where are you from?”

Right one of the questions Ichigo hoped to avoid. It wasn’t a good idea saying _from a world where its inhabitants feed on human souls and, guess what, Grimmjow used to eat them too!;_ and there was no way to explain Hueco Mundo to Karin and Yuzu. Maybe there was a way for Karin, but absolutely nor for Yuzu. Ichigo prayed Grimmjow stuck to the answers he prepared.

“From Spain. Barcelona.”

“Wow! But you speak Japanese so well!”

“I’ve been living in Japan since when I was a child.”

“And–“

“Yuzu.” Isshin gave her daughter a soft smile. “Why don’t we all eat before your food gets cold? It smells delicious.”

“Ah, yes. Sorry!”

Ichigo kept glancing at Grimmjow, who ate without saying anything. But since he was taking doubles of everything, he probably liked what he was devouring. Sometimes he scratched his arms or legs -once the stomach- and Ichigo was sure he heard him muttering “Damn body.” at some point.

“Hey, Grimmjow-kun.” This time Yuzu sounded more cheerful and less embarrassed, but her cheeks were still red. “How did you meet Ichi-nii? He didn’t want to tell us!”

Grimmjow gulped down the rice.

“I used him as a punching ball.”

Silence froze the cozy atmosphere in the room.

“What?” Ichigo panicked, as that was not the right answer. “I did not–“

“If it weren’t for that idiot who stopped me, I would have finished the job.”

“Well, I defeated you in the end!”

“I’m leading with two victories. You only defeated me once and because your friends are always interfering!”

“Inoue didn’t interfere!”

“Yes, she did!”

“No, she didn’t!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

Karin coughed, interrupting them.

“So, you end up in fights with every thug around like our brother?”

“Hey! This is not–” Ichigo tried to stop that conversation, but Grimmjow went on.

“No. I seek fights with strong fighters.”

Karin was taken aback. “What are you, from a shonen manga?”

“A shonen what?”

She glanced at Ichigo, but didn’t say anything. Then looked at Yuzu and tilted her head.

“Yuzu…”

Yuzu was captured by Grimmjow. Her eyes were glimmering as his rude character was slowly slithering perfectly into the mental image she depicted of him as soon as she met him.

“Hey, there’s no more of this?”

Grimmjow was eating his last piece of fried chicken while scanning the table looking if there was any left in some plate. Ichigo took the two he was about to eat from his bowl and put them into Grimmjow’s.

“Here.”

His gesture was spontaneous and natural. Ichigo caught the look into his father’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Isshin smiled.

“Nothing.”

They survived the lunch. Yuzu kept asking trivial questions and Ichigo’s heart kept skipping beats as Grimmjow replied. Right before he opened his mouth, Ichigo pictured him blurting out everything about shinigami and hollows; but then Grimmjow followed the right path and Ichigo could breathe again.

“I knew you were a cat person.” Yuzu said as she was taking off the plates from the table.

Unexpectedly, Grimmjow stood up and started taking the bowls. Everyone looked at him and he looked back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Grimmjow, you’re the guest! Please, go relax in the living room!” Isshin grabbed the bowls from his hands and pushed them onto Karin’s lap.

“Oi, dad…”

He ignored his daughter’s glare and dragged Grimmjow into the living room.

Ichigo wondered how Grimmjow hadn’t burst out yet. It was suspicious how he didn’t even try to rebel to his father and was about to help her sister. But when Isshin almost pushed Grimmjow on the couch and shoved a familiar photo album onto his lap, his brain froze, and he could only concentrate on what his father had just done.

“Why don’t we go in my room?”

He almost yelled, but it was too late: Grimmjow opened the first page and Isshin was already beginning with his explanations.

“That’s the very first photograph I took of Ichigo.”

Ichigo stood behind them, towering like a threatening figure in order to prevent anything embarrassing coming out from those photo albums. He didn’t expect his father to be so outgoing, especially after he confessed that, yes, his boyfriend was an arrancar. Yet, he was there, showing his old pictures to Grimmjow, who looked more interested than he should have. 

Ichigo hoped for Grimmjow to be fed up with that thing soon enough. However, Grimmjow seemed to be designed to tease him even unwillingly, since he kept looking at the photographs with interest. He turned the page and Ichigo turned as red as the baby clothes he was wearing in some photographs.

“Why this strawberry suit? Because of the name?”

Isshin nodded with a proud smile. “That was my idea and my Masaki totally agreed with me!”

“Dad…”

“There are only photographs of him here.”

“I have three albums, for each of my beautiful children! And then other three family albums as well!”

“I see, I see…”

Ichigo would have paid to open Grimmjow’s head and take a peek of what he was thinking while looking at his photographs. His face was a straight mask and not a single emotion was leaking from it.

Grimmjow leafed through the pages of Ichigo until he reached the one where Isshin captured the Ichigo’s face filled with tears; one hand was wiping away the tears rolling down his cheeks, the other was clinging onto the hand of what seemed a woman, judging by the clothes – only half of her was in the photograph. The next image was almost the same momentum, probably only a handful of seconds later: the woman, Ichigo’s mother, kneeled to hug her son, who showed a watered but bright smile.

“Ichigo used to be such a crybaby. Once he cried because he thought the sun died every night and every day there was a new one.”

“I was only four!!!”

Isshin sighed. “Aaaah, I wonder why my cute son turned into such a disrespectful punk…”

“Guess why, old man… and I’m not a punk.”

It seemed like Grimmjow wasn’t listening because he was too concentrated on the album. Ichigo at his first day at school; his first day at the karate club; at the beach; eating an ice-cream; playing tag with her sisters. Then, a huge gap. His first day in middle school. There was no more his mother, he had no more a huge smile on his face. The album finished with a photograph of him in his high school uniform. He was almost glaring at the camera, he looked bored.

“By the time he entered high school, Ichigo didn’t want me to take photographs. But thank god I have my beautiful daughters!”

“I don’t want it either, old man.” Karin appeared behind them. “But you keep taking them anyway. We need to go to the supermarket.”

“Uh, why?”

“Yuzu is having a crisis. She wanted to make some pudding for dinner but forgot some ingredients and she can only find them in the shop in the near town.” Karin seemed annoyed. “I need to buy a new game. I’m coming with you.”

Everyone was looking at Isshin, who burst into sincere tears and was sobbing into his hands.

“My daughters still need their papa. Why can’t they stay this young forever?!”

“Stop the blabber. Let’s go.”

Grimmjow was sure Karin gave him a quick glare. He didn’t mind.

The house was filled with the echo of Isshin’s cries of joy and Karin’s attempts of calming him with hits and kicks; in somewhere, there was Yuzu who failed in making them notice there was a guest. When the entrance door was closed, Grimmjow and Ichigo still heard their voices, until they faded away.

“Usually Yuzu makes pudding when there are guests.”

“Dinner?”

“Yup.” Ichigo took the remote and turned on the tv. “What’s that face?”

Grimmjow looked strange. Nor angry, nor surprised. Just puzzled. Ichigo had never seen such a sad frown on his face.

“Nothing.”

He was looking at the moving images but didn’t see them.

“They’re weird, but kind… my family.” No replies, so Ichigo went on. “I guess there isn’t much kindness in Hueco Mundo.”

“You don’t say…” Grimmjow turned towards him, annoyed. “What do you want to say?”

“I mean, you’re not used to kindness. It’s obvious you don’t know how to react to that.”

“Hah?”

“Why did you want to help Yuzu then? It’s not like she wants something in return.”

Grimmjow snorted. “It’s not like you can understand, Kurosaki. You have all this every day, it’s normal to you. If someone was _kind_ to me it was because they wanted to lick my shoes or either stab my back.”

Ichigo had the feeling he was dealing with a hurt animal who had trust issues. Tousen cut his arm and Nnoitra stabbed his neck; they were supposed to be on his side and damaged him more than his enemies did.

“You could come and eat more often.” He suggested. “My family wouldn’t mind, I’m sure.”

“You father and Yuzu. The other one doesn’t like me.”

“Karin is protective, that’s all. You look like a thug and glare all the time, it’s normal.”

“She glares all the time too.” Grimmjow glanced at the television. “What’s this thing?”

“A tv show.”

A man fell into a pool of mud because of his poor jump.

“It seems stupid.”

“It is.”

But both kept watching.

“I don’t like him.” Karin stated it when they left home. “He’s not suited for Ichigo.”

Yuzu hesitated. “Because he’s a boy…?”

“No. Because he’s not for Ichigo! I don’t like him.”

Both turned to Isshin, expecting him to throw one of his usual stupid tantrums. But he stayed silent and serious. When both his daughters turned to him, as if they were waiting for his opinion, he talked.

“It’s Ichigo’s choice and there’s noting that hints Grimmjow is toxic for him. For now, we should respect his decision.”

“He can do whatever he wants. I just said I don’t like that wannabe boyfriend.”

Yuzu hesitated but replied to her sister anyway. “He’s just a bit scary…”

“You have a crush on him already.” Karin smirked.

“That’s not true!”

But her cheeks told another story.

It took them an hour to do the errand and return home. Yuzu and Isshin ended up buying more groceries than they needed and each of them was carrying two bags.

“Ichi-nii. We’re home!”

No reply. The only sound came from the television, some people were laughing.

“I wonder where they are…”

“Can’t you imagine, Yuzu?” Karin looked up. “Two young lovers alone at home. Ichigo isn’t that naïve.”

“Wha–“

The bags almost fell from Yuzu’s hands. Her face turned into a red mask.

“Karin, I guess Ichigo would never do this… uhm… when we…”

“Still with the brother issues, huh?”

“That’s not true, Karin!”

Isshin tried to calm them down. “Now now… it’s just normal. You know, when I was your brother’s age–“

“Nobody cares, old man.” Karin could hear a crack coming from her father’s chest. “Just don’t enter his room.” She rustled into the bag and picked her game. “I’ll go play a bit. Call me for dinner.”

Karin left the entrance and rushed to the stairs. However, her eyes fell on the television. And she saw it.

Ichigo was sleeping, his head dangling on Grimmjow’s shoulder, his body completely relaxed. Grimmjow had his eyes closed.

Karin remained halfway, looking at them, until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Isshin was smiling.

“Better put a cover on them.”

“Yes… my brother is stupid.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while. I had this one shot in my mind for a while, but I've never written it down. I'm not totally satisfied, but it doesn't even suck. Probably. Grimmjow not knowing how to act around Ichigo's family is my new favorite thing. He didn't even tease him that much because of that.


End file.
